Capcom: Dante Needed to be 'Completely Different'

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New character design likely final.

By Jim Reilly

The Tokyo Game Show <a href="http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/112/1120705p1.html" target=newreveal of Capcom's new Devil May Cry brought mixed reactions from fans, mainly due to the design change to the series' main character Dante. Developers also changed hands, with Heavenly Sword and Enslaved developer Ninja Theory taking on the project.

Speaking to IGN in an upcoming interview, Capcom VP of Strategic Planning and Business Development Christian Svensson says Dante needed a new look for this new game.

"The original concepts that came back for Dante were actually extremely close to the Dante everyone knows and loves," Svensson explained. "The feedback that came back from [Keiji] Inafune and [Hideaki] Itsuno was, 'No guys, this needs to be completely different, we need you to go much further and be much more creative.'"

"And literally dozens of potential iterations later became what we as a team felt comfortable and actually happy with."

Svensson later admitted Capcom knew there would be fan backlash for the design change but said it was all part of the plan.

"I will argue that any changes will bring about a knee-jerk reaction from fans," he said. "We know that; we knew that going into it. To be fair, I think some of the strategy here was to create that discussion and dialogue, and I think it drastically raises the visibility of the title versus if we had just done another Dante."

Infamous 2 developer Sucker Punch revealed a new design for Cole, the game's protagonist, earlier this year. Due to the negative reaction it received, however, the studio changed Cole back to look more like the original design.

Svensson said he doesn't expect the team to make any major changes to Dante in the new Devil May Cry.

"This is meant to be an origin story, so this is Dante before you knew who Dante was," he explained. "There is going to be some interesting changes and twists to what people think they know about Dante or where he came from. We aren't planning on deviating greatly from the path that is there."

"There may still be some tweaks here or there - I'm not privy to what's going on - but by and large that will be the direction the team is going down."

For our full interview with Christian Svensson, including his thoughts on what went wrong with Lost Planet 2, the future of third-party exclusives, and his response to Inafune's controversial comments from TGS, check back with IGN on Friday.